Workstations for mounting audio-visual, electrical, communication and computer equipment are well known and are available from different manufacturers. It is also known to construct office workstations in a modular fashion that permits a wide variety of furniture groupings or arrangements. However, if numerous electrical components are required together in a relatively small workstation space, it becomes essential to easily arrange such components in a compact manner whereby the equipment is comfortably and conveniently accessible to the user or users. Efficient routing of the electrical wiring and cables so as not to detract from the appearance of the workstation also becomes an issue. Wiring and cables should be located away from the floor areas where persons might trip on them and should be easily accessible for service personnel.
Some particular environments that require increasingly complicated and sophisticated workstations include television studios, radio stations, security centers, air traffic control centers and financial and brokerage institutions where users typically need access to numerous television monitors, computer displays, data processors and telecommunications equipment arranged in a side-by-side manner. In such environments, workstations are typically custom built and installed by the manufacturer based on the user's particular equipment requirements. As such, the workstation arrangement for supporting the various electronic components is usually permanently fixed. If it later becomes necessary to expand the workstation or rearrange the electronic components, the workstation must be rebuilt or replaced. The result is that the workstation may be put out of use during the modification or expansion. Thus, such known workstations are not optimally suited for use in a dynamic work environment, where workspaces are ideally capable of rapid configuration and reconfiguration by the workers themselves in a highly efficient manner.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a flexible, modular workstation that permits the user to easily adjust the positions of the various components of the workstation as desired. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide such a workstation that is adapted to allow mounting of additional equipment or components and that can be easily connected to other workstations.